21st April - Kirsty left Claire's and headed to Peterborough train station to catch the train to London for a discussion about a career change.Before the meeting she managed to fit in some shopping at French Connection and Miss Sixty in Covent Garden as well as Schuh and Topshop on Oxford Street and so managed to spend plenty of money yet again!Her interview was near the Ritz Hotel at Green Park in some beautiful boutique offices where she was told that changing her career from law would be difficult but not impossible.She then got the train back to Peterborough, collected the car from the station and drove to Nottingham to pick me up from my parents before driving back to Barnsley where we had a Chinese takeaway for tea and fell exhausted into bed, with the promise to update last weeks blog tonight well forgotten.

22nd - We wrote and updated last weeks blog, which we were aware was 2 days late, and I did some work on the computer.It was a really quiet and relaxing day, which is good as we have a packed week of visiting friends starting tomorrow.

23rd - Ralph decided to stay in Barnsley and do some work (10 hours!) on his novel.I went to visit my friend Fran and her two children Patrick and Thomas in Warrington and was also pleasantly surprised when Fran's husband Kevin also put in an appearance!When I arrived we went to a lovely local pub for lunch with Fran and Thomas before going to the park to feed the ducks, play on the swings (the practise I had on Sunday came in useful) and have ice cream.We then went back to Fran's where her other son Patrick had just arrived home from school and, because the weather was so lovely and warm, we all went on the trampoline for a good while whilst basking in the sun.After playing a few more games with the kids and looking at a rather scary book on sharks with Patrick, it was time to drive back to Barnsley.Once I got back and we had tea Ralph and I decided to go up to our nearest local pub, The Travellers, where it happened to be quiz night.We ended up being in there hours as the quizmaster was obviously drunk and could hardly read the questions, never mind pronounce some of the more difficult words, all done of course in a Barnsley twang!We put in an appalling performance at the quiz, getting only 12 out of 21 right and decided to call it a night (seriously, how are we supposed to know that owls are the only birds that can see the colour blue!?!)

24th - We set off towards Newcastle to see some friends in the area, but we could not pass Hall Hill Farm without calling in to see Kirsty's adopted donkey Remus.The farm were in a bit of a flap as one of the stags had kicked the fence enclosure down and all the deers had escaped, not to be seen again!While they were out looking for the deers it started to rain heavily and no one was available to take the donkeys in with the result that they had some very wet donkeys!Some were so wet they had to be taken in to a sheltered area to dry off.We took a quick look at the chicks, pigs, goats, lambs etc and then Kirsty had some time with Caramel the rabbit before finding the donkeys, and especially Remus, to treat him to lots of lovely feed.Kirsty happy we carried on and she dropped me off at work to meet my colleagues for a night out.Kirsty went to meet her old work colleague Val who had unfortunately been made redundant today.They had a coffee and a chat and Kirsty was pleased to see that Val was surprisingly upbeat and sees the redundancy as an opportunity to look for something she would really like to do rather than look at it as a negative.After a lovely chat they parted and Kirsty went to meet with another old work colleague Denise.They went for tea at Frankie & Benny's in The Gate in Newcastle and chatted about travels, holidays etc.They had a great time and then Kirsty came to collect me at about 9.30 p.m. where she drove home, as I was rather worse for wear! I had only one evening engagement tonight - with my work colleagues. After an hour getting up-to-date with things at work, a few of the old 'Gosforth Guzzlers' and an honorary new member, Richie, went to local pub before heading into Newcastle to remind me just how out of drinking practice I am. Well done guys, you made me look like an amateur! A great night, thanks guys.

25th - A quiet day broken only by the fact that we met up with Kirsty's friend Jenny for a meal at Sheffield's Centertainment.We had a lovely meal and a chat about work, love and life before leaving her because we were dropping Kirsty's mum off in town for her weekly piss up!!I took her into town then Kirsty's dad and I decided to go to the snooker club to play a fair few frames while Kirsty looked after her little sister Kaycia.

26th - We were up early to get to Dronfield to watch Kirsty's cousin Jade play in the cup final for Barnsley Ladies under 15's v. Sheffield Wednesday Ladies under 15's.There were around 6 games being carried on at the same time on the pitches at Gosforth Fields in Dronfield and, rather confusingly but brilliantly, Barnsley were in 3 of those cup final games.The bad thing about this was that Kirsty lead us to a pitch and got ready for kick off, all the time wondering where her star player cousin was, and it wasn't until about 1 minute before kick off that she realised we were at the wrong one and we had to get right to the other end of the fields to get to the right game!We just made it before the kick off and we were in for a fantastic game.Barnsley Ladies opponents are the league winners, have never lost all season, havbe scored 160 goals in the league and only conceded 3.Barnsley Ladies came third in the League and, although they are a very good side and got to the final last year but lost, they knew that getting anything out of this game would be an uphill struggle.The nerves and quality of the opposition got to Barnsley in the first half, and while they defended well and have a fantastic goalkeeper who made a cracking save, they struggled to get the ball out of their own half in the first half.Jade played well, although she was obviously nervous and we were pleased with a score of 0-0 at half time.Second half started and Barnsley got a goal and the whole game changed. Suddenly they realised that this team were just girls like themselves and they were no better than anyone else and could be beaten.Their heads lifted and they were no longer scared of challenging and tackling them.Sheffield Wednesday on the other hand dropped their heads, they were not used to being 1-0 down!There was a clash between two Sheff Wednesday players and they both went down hard.One girl was completely out for the count and they could not bring her round for some time, and she now has a lovely cut below her eye and two unbelievable black eyes to show for it!Barnsley then got a penalty and scored and they were on their way.They defended fantastically while Sheffield Wednesday Ladies crumbled, and when the whistle went at 2-0 to Barnsley the celebrations were fantastic.Sheffield Wednesday Ladies however were totally shell-shocked.They had expected to win and had brought champagne to spray each other with, which did not have the same effect being sprayed when they had lost, as well as poppers which their coach set off to try and lift the spirits of his clearly upset girls.Just to add insult to injury, the poppers were set off and confetti of red and white (Barnsley's colours!) showered down onto them!We stayed for the trophy ceremony and it was wonderful to see Jade and the rest of the girls get their medals and trophy.A great start to the day.Getting back to Barnsley we headed straight off to Newcastle ready for Kirsty's night out with Lisa and Tommy.We were both shattered (must have been the early start!) so we were looking forward to arriving at the hotel for a nap!Once we arrived at the hotel we had a surprise as Tommy had been earlier and asked the hotel staff to place 20 bars of Cadbury's Twirl's (one of Kirsty's favourite chocolate bars and something she definitely missed while we were travelling around the United States) on our bed to form the word "hi".It was so funny to see and really sweet of Tommy and Kirsty wasted no time in getting stuck into her first bar.I listened to the Nottingham Forest on the internet and Kirsty had a little sleep before getting ready to go out and getting picked up by Lisa and Tommy in the taxi at 6.10 p.m.She went to Heaton Club, which is a fabulous place to get cheap booze and a singing act, all interspersed with games of bingo, play your cards right, quiz etc.Its also one of the few remaining places where you take your own food (sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, peanuts etc.) which is eaten between the first and second half of the act!Kirsty had a great time there with Lisa and Tommy, Lisa's dad and stepmum and Lisa's nana, the fabulous Barbara (Kirsty says that if she is as feisty as that when she is 76 she will be a very happy women!).Once totally inebriated they made their way into Newcastle City Centre to go to Blu Bambu, a nightclub where they always end up in the V.I.P. area with free drinks all night as Tommy used to be a bouncer there.As Lisa is 6 months pregnant it was non-alcoholic cocktails all round for her.Highlight of being at the nightclub was seeing the guy that plays Andy Sugden in Emmerdale dressed as a women in a blue dress, high heels and a blonde wig!Kirsty went over and took a picture for him of him and his friends (also dressed as women) on his disposable camera, I am sure he will be pleased when that's developed!

27th - We got up late (Kirsty didn't get in until 3.30 a.m. and was really drunk) and checked out of our hotel and headed up to Alnwick, Northumberland to see our friends Anita and Nick who had kindly offered to cook us Sunday lunch, an offer we could not turn down!We had a lovely afternoon with them and a simply wonderful meal expertly cooked by Nick.It was great to see them, especially as Nick has just safely finished another tour of duty in Afghanistan with the RAF.We are planning to back to spend a month in New York City as part of our travels and Anita and Nick are going to come out and join us, something we are really looking forward to.With full bellies and after having a fantastic day we drove back to Barnsley, ready to update the blog for another week.